


The Stormcage

by betawho



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, General, Humor, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-06
Updated: 2013-08-06
Packaged: 2017-12-22 14:10:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/914129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betawho/pseuds/betawho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River's life in the Stormcage was boring, but there were a few things to liven it up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stormcage

It wasn't so bad, the Stormcage. The food was lousy, and the weather never let up. But the guards were polite, once they learned. And the security was nicely predictable. She'd gone through 14 Wardens since she first came here. The first three were determined to keep her inside at all costs.

Some costs were too high. (And some secrets should never be made public.)

The neighbors were rowdy, but very diverse and she'd picked up quite a few handy tips over the years. Not to mention a few very nasty fighting moves.

But mostly people left her alone. She could read and study in peace, they knew not to stop her phone calls or mail. (After the first time she missed a rendezvous with the Doctor there had been some nasty repercussions. The Doctor had helped with that one. Subsequent Wardens and communications specialists learned not to tamper with her mail. And they never found the taps in the system.)

Solitary confinement became a joke, if only because it was a great cover for being gone for long periods of time. And the one time the Doctor arrived to find a bruise on her she'd barely kept him from committing an "undoing." He hadn't been going to kill the man, he'd been going to erase him from history. Fortunately, half an hour alone in her cell with her and even the Doctor started feeling sorry for the guy.

He'd never look at a pink feather boa the same way again. Although the Doctor also never let her live it down. (He made sure to keep a pink feather boa in the costume room after that, just for teasing purposes. Okay, that came out wrong. Oh, wait, no it didn't.)

Still, all in all, it wasn't so bad. She had her own room, her own block actually, she got irritable when other prisoners wouldn't let her get her sleep. It just became easier to move them, the medical bills were getting too high.

It was just waiting for the Doctor that was so hard. Time dragged. As it would in prison. Occasionally the justice system would come up with some project they thought her skills would be good for, dangling the carrot of a pardon in front of her, as if she needed it. But they helped pass the time, sometimes they were even interesting.

But still, she waited for the Doctor. The man was always late.

But he was always worth it.

—

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